CRUZ, JOMARI K.

FPOPE52
EXAM 1

I. Scenario: You woke up one day, disoriented, to an unfamiliar desk, in an office gigantic
enough to fit your house. Everything is foreign to your eyes, including the unfamiliar
employees, glancing and smiling politely outside the glass wall that separates the office you
are in to one that is even more humungous. You start letting your eyes soak with the beaut
that is this office, the original Van Gogh paintings (YOU ARE A FAN!), the love seat dressed in
velvet, and.. AND THE FAMILY PORTRAIT! You almost fainted. You, looking like you’re in your
late 30’s, looking gorgeous wearing such fine clothes, enclosing someone looking like a
model in what can only be called a sweet possessive hug, with a kid, probably 7 or 8 years
old, trying to sandwich himself between you and the model. Then, to your horror, you see
the ring on your finger. YOU ARE MARRIED! AND.. AND.. THE PLATE AT THE DESK READS
YOUR NAME! Only it is prefixed with the title Engr. and calls you the project head of the 1st
ever smart city in the Philippines, the New Manila Bay – City of Pearl! And if this isn’t
enough, a letter on the table caught your attention:

JOMARI K. CRUZ
Head Engineer
The New Manila Bay – City of Pearl

Dear Engr.,

Greetings!

We are writing to request the full report regarding the following concerns:

1. We are being asked by the city’s mayor if the 25 GW steam power plant we’ve installed
is a new model ranging from 40% to 50% efficiency, considering that coal has a calorifc
value of 7,100 kCal per lb, the plant’s load factor is at 30%, and and the coal
consumption per kWh is 450 grams. Is it? Please attach the calculations.
2. In addition to this, the mayor is inquiring about how much coal we are consuming per
hour, per day, per week, per month and per year for the Green Initiative Summit. Is it
possible to estimate it at the moment? Please attach the corresponding computations.
3. If the electrical efficiency is at 89%, is it possible to compute for the turbine efficiency?
Please let me know if I can provide you with anymore information that will help you
answer this.
II. Give one reason why electrical energy is considered superior to other forms. Explain.

The main reason why electrical energy is considered superior to other forms because electrical
energy can transform into other form of energy for about 100 percent. Unlike other form of energy
when you transform it into electrical energy, it will be never 100 percent transformed.

III. Establish the following units in its SI equivalent then break them down into the fundamental
units.
a. 1 kWh
b. 3.5 Hp
c. 860 kCal
d. 1055 BTU
e. 14 Pa
IV. Relatively speaking, would a steam generating station be cheap? In what way? If tapped as
an engineer, and all factors like transportation, water, land, and its proximity from the
communities are considered a check, would you build one?

Yes, steam generating station would be cheap because the fuel (which is coal) to be used is
cheap. If the fuel is cheap, the electricity would be cheap also. Additionally, steam power station has low
initial cost. Compared to nuclear and hydro power plant, to build a steam power plant is inexpensive.
Steam power station can also be installed at any place, and it requires lesser space compared to hydro
power plant.
Considering that all the factors like transportation, water, land and its proximity from the
communities are checked. Still, I wouldn’t build a steam generating station because most of the existing
power station are steam due to cheap raw materials. I think we should consider now is the cleanliness of
the power station. I didn’t mean that all the power station must be clean. Its just that we should balance
between the clean and dirty.

V. Among the equipments of a steam power station, which ones are existent primarily to
improve the efficiency of the plant? What exactly do they do?

Superheater is one of the equipment of a steam power station that improve the efficiency of the
plant because it superheats the steam. It increases the temperature of the steam above the boiling
point of water. It dries up the steam instead of moist condition. Meaning, the efficiency of the plant is
increasing because there is no waste heat.
Economiser is also one the equipment of a steam power station that improve the efficiency of
the plant because it heated the feed water before it goes through the boiler.
Lastly, Air Pre-heater because it preheats the air that will enter to the boiler using the heat we
have from the flue gas.

VI. Among the 6 stages, pick one stage of the steam power station and explain how it works.

I chose stage 4 which is alternator. The alternator is coupled to a steam turbine and converts
mechanical energy into electrical energy. The electrical energy that produced by the alternator will go
through the busbar. Using the different electrical devices like transformer, it will step up or step down
the voltage and circuit breaker for protection before it will be transmitted.